Summer tour: Micah diary day 4

We went along to the baseball yesterday to give Harty some support as he was making the ceremonial pitch for the Dodgers.

He had been giving it the big one for 36 hours before the match but to be fair to him he pulled it off - his pitch was pretty good as it goes.

Harty went for the whole day in big style and while we were in the club shop at the Dodgers he bought himself a shirt and Adam Johnson suggested he should have a nickname put on it. He chose ‘Hart Dog’.

The camera then panned in on him on the big screen and the kids came swarming round asking for his autograph which he signed.

It was a good afternoon and the Dodgers won. It was an all-around fun day and good banter though we didn’t get to meet any baseball players; that was a bit unfortunate.

Afterwards a few of the lads went into the city but as readers of this diary last year will remember I like a sleep in the day so I headed back to the hotel and watch ‘Fast and Furious 5’ on the telly before a quiet night – I am getting old and boring!

On Monday we started the double sessions which will be a feature of the week until we head to San Francisco on Friday. There is a real intensity about the drills we're doing.

The first work out we had was all short and sharp work with less and less recovery time between the activities. The previous days we had done longer runs which I tend to struggle with especially if my lower back starts to hurt.

I was well out at the front and enjoying it with SWP. David Silva was up there, too. He is unusual in that he has speed and endurance.

Mind you they were both wearing girls’ boots today. I have never seen boots like them. Vlady had some on too. I nearly had to put on some sunglasses!

Of course not everyone enjoys these sessions when it is all about fitness and not ball work but we know too that they are necessary. We all just want to play football.But it is the work you do now that separates the best from the rest and we want to be the best. You reap your rewards later in the season.

James Milner is also looking sharp he looks like a greyhound and is just naturally super fit. There has been a lot of intensity about the work we have done so far.

There is plenty of laughing and banter off the pitch but we are down to business on it. There is not time for messing about. We know people are looking at us as serious contenders. There is a belief that now we have won something we can go on and win more.

We know that we still haven’t reached our potential and there is a real feeling that we are destined to go on and achieve more. We know that we have to make a fast start.